25 Worst Managers to Win a World Series Championship

Mike Ehrmann/Getty ImagesOzzie Guillen is one of the Worst Managers of All Time to Win a World Series

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Just because a team wins a world series, it does not mean the manager was actually responsible for leading his team to victory. There were some teams—like Murderer's Row, for example—that probably would have won the World Series with you and me as their manager. They happened to have a great manager in Miller Huggins who definitely helped, but even he could not have messed up that team.

These 25 managers, on the other hand—they did their share of messing up.

The point is, there are a lot of managers in baseball history who, despite having a ring on their finger, did not necessarily earn it with their managerial skills. Here are 25 people that should be very thankful for the players they had, because they are among the worst managers in baseball history to win a world series.

25. Charlie Manual

It is incredibly hard to pick on a manager who has never won less than 85 games as a manager in a full season.

However, after six consecutive postseason appearances with a loaded Phillies roster, I expect more than just one ring.

I know those are lofty expectations. However, I believe that if the Phillies do not win the world series this season, Manual will go down with a lot more “what could have been” stories, rather than stories about how he was a good manager.

23. Jim Leyland

Harry How/Getty ImagesJim Leyland

Jim Leyland has earned a great deal of respect over the course of his career for his knowledge and ability to manage over the course of four decades.

However, with only one world series title and two pennants in those 21 years, not to mention a record only three games over .500, I would have expected a greater rate of success to go along with his accolades.

22. Tom Kelly

Jonathan Daniel/Getty ImagesTom Kelly

Despite winning two World Series titles, Tom Kelly ended his career with a record under .500, sitting at 1140-1244.

After the second of his two titles in 1991, Kelly managed 10 more seasons but only had two more with winning records. Even with his great success of the late 80s and early 90s, Kelly only had three seasons with 90+ wins.

21. Bucky Harris

Bucky Harris

I realize he was elected into the Hall of Fame as a manager, but with a .490 winning percentage over his 29 years, his election was looks more like an acknowledgement of how long he was a manager, rather than his managerial ability.

After winning titles in his first two seasons with Walter Johnson and the Washington Senators, he only won one in his next 27 seasons.

18. Lou Boudreau

Lou Boudreau

Lou Boudreau was a player/manager for the Cleveland Indians from 1942-1950.

Bourdreau was never anything special as a manager, as he accumulated a losing record of 1162-1224 over 16 seasons. The only three reasons he even won his world series were Bob Feller, Bob Lemon and Gene Bearden as they won a combined 59 games that season.

As cool as it may be to manage a professional team as a 24-year-old, he was not clearly very good at it.

17. Rogers Hornsby

Rogers Hornsby

As I mentioned in my article yesterday about the best "little-guy" home run hitters in baseball history, Rogers Hornsby is one of the most underrated players of all-time. However, as a manager it was a very different story.

After helping the Cardinals to a World Series Title in 1926 as a player/manager, Hornsby never was able to win another pennant in any of his next 13 seasons managing, during which he compiled a record of 548-696.

12. Chuck Tanner

Chuck Tanner

Chuck Tanner managed for 19 seasons in the big leagues, but only managed to top the 90-win mark twice. When he was fired by the Braves in 1988, he finished his managerial career with a sub .500 record at 1352-1381.

11. George Stallings

George Stallings

With only one season with more than 90 wins and a career winning percentage under .500, Stallings never amounted to anything more than his one world series championship despite managing for 13 seasons in the early 1900s.

10. Frankie Frisch

Frankie Frisch

After winning his one world series in his days as a player/manager, Frisch managed 11 seasons from 1938-1951 and did not win another pennant. He was fired from all three of the teams he worked for, never amassing more than 90 wins in any of those 11 seasons.

9. Gabby Street

Gabby Street

Much like Frankie Frisch, Street won his only title as a player/manager, but when he was just the manager, his teams’ win-loss record was terrible. In his first and only season as a player/manager, his team won the world series in 1931. The two years that followed, when he was simply the manager, Street’s Cardinals were 118-127 and he was let go midseason in 1933.

He was then hired by the St. Louis Brown in 1938, but he promptly went 53-90 and was fired before his first season even concluded.

8. Jack McKeon

Christopher Pasatieri/Getty ImagesJack McKeon

McKeon is a nice story having managed 38 years apart, but he has never been anything special as a manager. He only has one world series title to his name and has been let go by five different organizations.

6. Ozzie Guillen

Sarah Glenn/Getty ImagesOzzie Guillen

I feel like Guillen is more of a reality television show than a baseball manager.

In order to get off lists like these, he will need to have more success on the field in Miami and avoid the drama off of it, as he only made the playoffs in one season outside of his World Series campaign.

5. Dallas Green

Dallas Green

In 8+ seasons as a manager, Dallas Green only had one winning season. Take a wild guess when that was.

In all seriousness, Green finished his managerial career with only one season above 70 wins and a career record below .500 and will have a spot on this list reserved for him until people stop playing baseball.

3. Bruce Bochy

Bochy has somehow managed for 18 seasons, and yet he still has a record under .500 for his career as a manager. Even in the year he won the World Series, the Giants only won 92 games, and he had Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain to thank for that.